OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Conference. Warsaw, 22 September to 3 October Working session 15: Fundamental freedoms II (continued)

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1 OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Conference Warsaw, 22 September to 3 October 2014 Working session 15: Fundamental freedoms II (continued) Contribution of the Council of Europe Education for democratic citizenship and human rights education Education plays a crucial role in the promotion and development of democracy and human rights. The Council of Europe supports cooperation activities on education for democratic citizenship and human rights education (EDC/HRE), in the framework of which reference texts are developed, exchange and mutual assistance are facilitated, and a broad range of publications and materials are produced, with a view to encourage and support relevant educational reforms in the 50 States Party to the European Cultural Convention. A. Reference texts The Council of Europe Charter on Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights Education (Recommendation CM/Rec(2010)7) is the latest and the most comprehensive text adopted by the Council of Europe member states in this area. It is an important reference point for all of Europe, which provides a common framework, a focus and catalyst for action. The first review cycle of the implementation of the Charter, which was organised in 2012, provided an overview of the current situation in this area. The next review cycle, including a report and a major conference, is foreseen in As of 2013, a CoE/EC Pilot Projects Scheme Human Rights and Democracy in Action supports cooperation initiatives among 2-5 States party to the European Cultural Convention which aim to put the Charter s principles into practice. The scheme fosters peer-to peer learning among and within the countries, and facilitates the collection and sharing of information on all existing forms citizenship and human rights education. Two projects focusing on teaching controversial issues and on the critical assessment of media and social networks information, with the participation of thirteen countries are currently under way. B. Networking 1

2 The CoE supports a network of EDC/HRE co-ordinators appointed by the States Party to the European Cultural Convention. These co-ordinators are major contributors to the CoE s work, on the one hand, and to the development of citizenship and human rights education in their countries on the other. Many of the coordinators are currently working on reforms in their countries regarding EDC/HRE, or have recently been involved in preparing and implementing such reforms. Through the network of the coordinators, support on specific questions (ex. curricula, teacher training) related to EDC/HRE is provided on a regular basis. In 2014, the annual meeting of the EDC/HRE coordinators was held in Baku in the framework of Azerbaijan s Chairmanship of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers, and was devoted to the topic of Children in vulnerable situations: Making a change through citizenship and human rights education. Other networking events in 2014 included the seminar on Children at the Centre of Education (April 2014) 1 and the meeting on Think Global Act Local: Education for Democracy (October 2014), organised in the framework of the European Local Democracy Week. The two events reached out to the European pedagogical community and to the regional and local authorities respectively, and produced feedback and recommendation for future work in this area. In 2014, regional Summer Academies on citizenship and human rights education were organised in Poland and Montenegro in cooperation with the host countries and the European Wergeland Centre 2. The Academies are organised on an annual basis, with financial contributions from Norway and Andorra. An Anniversary Conference will be held in Warsaw on 5-7 October, with participation of alumni the Academies, as well as key decision makers, partners and supporters, in order to take stock of the past achievements and to discuss future activities. C. Communication and dissemination The Council of Europe has produced a wealth of materials, which are available for download in many languages on the EDC/HRE website ( Examples include a comprehensive EDC/HRE Pack, composed of manuals for various target audiences on a broad range of topics from policy development and democratic governance to teachers competences and quality assurance, Living Democracy a series of manuals for teachers for use in the classroom and Human Rights Education in the School Systems of Europe, Central Asia and North America: a Compendium of Good Practice" published by the OSCE/ODIHR, OHCHR, UNESCO and Council of Europe. The publication Democracy and Human Rights Start with Us: Charter for All is the child-friendly version of the the Council of Europe Charter on Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights Education. It comprises a brochure for children, a guide for teachers and a poster 3. In 2014, it has been published and disseminated in several non-official languages. 1 The 2nd edition of the Janusz Korczak Seminar, organised in cooperation with the Pestalozzi Programme and the Permanent Representation of Poland 2 The European Wergeland Centre is a European resource centre on education for intercultural understanding, human rights and democratic citizenship set up by Norway in close co-operation with the Council of Europe 3 These materials were produced jointly by the Council of Europe Youth and Education Departments, and in cooperation with the Programme Building Europe for and with Children, with a financial contribution from Finland. 2

3 The Council of Europe's film Beat Bullying shows how whole-school human rights and citizenship education programmes equip students and pupils with the understanding, skills and confidence they need to help stop bullying and violence at school, including cyberbullying. In 2014 the video was launched at a side event at the January session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, and it was broadly disseminated on the YouTube in English, French, German and Russian. Finally, the top ten entries of a Democracy at School comic strip competition for children (organised in 2013) inspired the production of a series of videos on this topic in D. Bilateral support While most of the CoE s work is inter-governmental, some bilateral assistance has been provided in this field through joint programmes with the European Commission in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo 5. In Turkey, the Council of Europe is currently implementing a joint EU/CoE project (6.1 million Euros) with the relevant Turkish authorities, introducing EDC/HRE throughout the education system. Concrete results include the piloting of a new elective curriculum for secondary school on human rights and democracy, a democratic school culture framework and accompanying manuals as well as training for teachers. E. Inter-institutional Co-operation The Council of Europe works closely with other major organisations active in the field of citizenship and human rights education. In 2014, it will host the 3rd meeting of the International contact group on citizenship and human rights education (ICG), which brings together the OHCHR, UNESCO, European Commission, EU Fundamental Rights Agency, OSCE/ODIHR, ALECSO, the Organization of American States (OAS) and the Council of Europe. The aim of the Contact Group is to ensure close cooperation among the regional and international initiatives in this field. Following the OHCHR initiative, the Contact Group launched a web resource on human rights education at a side event organised at the margins of the Human Rights Council session in September In , the Council of Europe, UNESCO, OSCE/ODIHR and the Organization of American States are developing a publication on the curriculum reform for education for democratic citizenship and human rights. Further information is available at the following address: Contact: Ms Yulia Pererva (yulia.pererva@coe.int) Ms Sarah Keating (sarah.keating@coe.int) Mr Marc Hory (marc.hory@coe.int) 4 Funded in the framework of the CoE/EC Pilot Projects Scheme Human Rights and Democracy in Action 5 All reference to Kosovo, whether to the territory, institutions or population, in this text shall be understood in full compliance with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244 and without prejudice to the status of Kosovo 3

4 LEARNING THE KEY PRINCIPLES AND THE FUNCTIONING OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS PROTECTION SYSTEM The project was launched at the end of 2010 and aims to enable European secondary school students to become familiar with the key principles of European law relating to human rights and to understand how the European Court of Human Rights and other important Council of Europe monitoring bodies are functioning. The case law of the Court and its landmark judgments are the main focus of the project and form a concrete basis for building learning activities for the classroom within the current national school programmes for Human rights Education and Citizenship Education in member States. The various teaching materials (offline and online), lesson plans and/or school and out of school activities that will be proposed within the framework of the project will help students in the classes concerned to understand how judgments implement key human rights instruments, how they help establishing European case-law in this field, where they stand in comparison with existing legislation in the member states and how the latter has had to be adapted where necessary. The project should increase awareness of young Europeans and their teachers (and school heads) about the work done by the Court; introduce European Human rights law to them and help them understanding its links with national law as well as its impact for European societies. The project should also encourage participation, dialogue and synergies in the process of implementation among all actors involved: students, teachers, and judges. In particular, the documents make accessible to a young readership a number of judgments by the Court, which are of key significance for the evolution of European law. Several roundtables were organised in the countries taking part in the project, bringing together representatives of international organisations, scholars, policy makers, practitioners and students in the area of human rights education. In 2013, a preliminary version of the Digital Directory of pedagogical resources and teaching materials on Human rights Education and Education for democratic citizenship was finalized and entered in its testing phase. Around 1000 teaching resources (in English and French) developed over the past 10 years by the Council of Europe were digitalized and the same amounts of metadata were prepared. A publication of pedagogical resources on the case-law of the European Court of Human rights is currently being finalised and should be published in the course of 2014, as well as the results of the symposium on Freedom of expression in the classroom that was organised by the group of experts at the end of Contact: Mr Villano Qiriazi (villano.qiriazi@coe.int) Ms Stefania Kruger (stefania.kruger@coe.int) 4

5 ( Human Rights Education and Youth The youth sector of the Council of Europe has made human rights education with, for and by young people a priority and a pillar of its youth policy.. It was underlined as one of the priorities set out by the 8 th Council of Europe Conference of Ministers responsible for youth affairs (Kyiv, October 2008) and the subsequent Resolution of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. The aim is to improve the capacity of youth organisations and multipliers, involved in human rights education and democratic participation and citizenship, to develop standards and tools in this regard for youth policy and youth work actors. In 2012, the Youth Department co-organised together with the Education Department of the Council of Europe the conference Human Rights and democracy in action Looking ahead. The impact of the Council of Europe Charter on Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights Education. For this conference, a first survey among governments and non-governmental partners on the implementation of the Charter was launched. The exercise and its results were reviewed extensively in the Conference and proposals for further development were made for the second review in 5 years time. The recommendations of the participants in the conference are to be discussed and followed up by the Consultative Group on Human Rights Education, further cooperation with the Education Department being envisaged. Every year, more than 700 youth leaders and multipliers participate at international and national level in activities promoting human rights education (including gender equality and sustainable development) and youth participation. Educational resources, particularly the ''Compass'' and Compasito manuals (human rights education manuals for young people and children) are distributed in member states and in regions outside Europe. In 2012, the updated and revised version of Compass manual was published in English. The revision is quite substantial including new themes, related background information and educational activities, update of all background information as well as substantial revision of the Taking action chapter. The new version has been welcomed by many organisations and a new process of translation in other languages has been initiated in 2013 with expectation to already have Polish, Ukrainian, French and Russian versions available. A new web portal for the manual is currently being developed by the Youth Department and will become available by the end of the year; its main feature will be its high degree of accessibility for people with disabilitiesa European training course for trainers on human rights education with young people is held every year. The last training course took place in , bringing together 45 trainers and multipliers from all over Europe in a learning process that involved e-learning, a residential training seminar and project implementation in the form of educational activities with young people. A new course will start in November 2013 with an e-learning phase, the residential seminar taking place in April

6 A programme of of national and regional training courses held in member states of the Council of Europe has been implemented with the aim to promote human rights education and education for democratic citizenship, notably by associating youth organisations and other actors in non-formal learning to human rights education. The programme is a contribution to the implementation of the Council of Europe Charter on Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights Education. In 2013, courses are taking place in Belarus, Hungary, Moldova, Romania, the Russian Federation, Slovenia, Switzerland and The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia,,, addressing youth trainers, multipliers and leaders as well as teachers and teacher trainers. Human rights education is also a major element of the youth dimension of the Action Plan on Ukraine, namely through the publication of Compass in Ukrainian and the preparation of a training course for trainers and youth leaders from Ukraine. Human rights education also has a central role in the youth campaign for human rights online, the No Hate Speech Movement. A toolkit for addressing hate speech in schools, in the pedagogical framework of human rights education is being made available in member states. Contact: Mr Rui Gomes (rui.gomes@coe.int) 6